DRM Hell

As the amount of premium content used and played on PCs has increased over the past few years, so-called digital rights management (DRM) and other content-protection technologies have also seen a dramatic – and corresponding – rise in popularity and sophistication. Two major players in the rise of DRM have been Microsoft and Apple. In this article we will take a look at the future of pervasive DRM and what that means for the end user. Is the future of content a dark, post-apocalyptic nightmare of encrypted license files and protected video paths – DRM Hell? Or will it be a paradise of content and new content distribution models made possible by DRM?